The Most Famous

FILM DIRECTORS from Iran

This page contains a list of the greatest Iranian Film Directors. The pantheon dataset contains 2,041 Film Directors, 13 of which were born in Iran. This makes Iran the birth place of the 23rd most number of Film Directors behind Argentina, and Georgia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Iranian Film Directors of all time. This list of famous Iranian Film Directors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Iranian Film Directors.

1. Abbas Kiarostami (1940 - 2016)

With an HPI of 67.71, Abbas Kiarostami is the most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 61 different languages on wikipedia.

Abbas Kiarostami (Persian: عباس کیارستمی [ʔæbˌbɒːs kijɒːɾostæˈmi] ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012. Kiarostami had worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director, and producer and had designed credit titles and publicity material. He was also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. He was part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that started in the late 1960s and emphasized the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues. Kiarostami had a reputation for using child protagonists, for documentary-style narrative films, for stories that take place in rural villages, and for conversations that unfold inside cars, using stationary mounted cameras. He is also known for his use of Persian poetry in the dialogue, titles, and themes of his films. Kiarostami's films contain a notable degree of ambiguity, an unusual mixture of simplicity and complexity, and often a mix of fictional and documentary elements. The concepts of change and continuity, in addition to the themes of life and death, play a major role in Kiarostami's works.

2. Dariush Mehrjui (1939 - 2023)

With an HPI of 60.40, Dariush Mehrjui is the 2nd most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Dariush Mehrjui (Persian: داریوش مهرجویی‎; 8 December 1939 – 14 October 2023) was an Iranian filmmaker and a member of the Iranian Academy of the Arts. Mehrjui was a founding member of the Iranian New Wave movement of the early 1970s, which also included directors Masoud Kimiai and Nasser Taqvai. His second film, The Cow (1969), is considered to be the first film of this movement. Most of his films are inspired by literature and adapted from Iranian and foreign novels and plays. On 14 October 2023, Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were found stabbed to death in their home in the city of Karaj, near Tehran.

3. Jafar Panahi (b. 1960)

With an HPI of 59.62, Jafar Panahi is the 3rd most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Jafar Panâhi (Persian: جعفر پناهی, [d͡ʒæˈfæɾ pænɒːˈhiː]; born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award an Iranian film won at Cannes. Panahi was quickly recognized as one of Iran's most influential filmmakers. His films were often banned in Iran, but he continued to receive international acclaim from film theorists and critics and won numerous awards, including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for The Mirror (1997), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle (2000), and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Offside (2006). His films are known for their humanistic perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished, and women. Hamid Dabashi has written, "Panahi does not do as he is told—in fact he has made a successful career in not doing as he is told." After several years of conflict with the Iranian government over the content of his films (including several short-term arrests), Panahi was arrested in March 2010 along with his wife, daughter, and 15 friends, and later charged with propaganda against the Iranian government. Despite support from filmmakers, film organizations, and human rights organizations around the world, in December 2010 Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving interviews with Iranian or foreign media, or leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage. While awaiting the result of an appeal he made This Is Not a Film (2011), a documentary feature in the form of a video diary. It was smuggled out of Iran on a flash drive hidden inside a cake and shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In February 2013 the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival showed Closed Curtain (Pardé) by Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi in competition; Panahi won the Silver Bear for Best Script. Panahi's subsequent film Taxi also premiered in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015 and won the Golden Bear, the prize awarded for the best film in the festival. In 2018 he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay (tied) for 3 Faces; he was unable to leave Iran to attend the festival, so his daughter, Solmaz Panahi, read his statement and received the award on his behalf.

4. Barbet Schroeder (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 58.46, Barbet Schroeder is the 4th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Barbet Schroeder (born 26 August 1941) is an Iranian-born Swiss film director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working with directors of the French New Wave such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer. Schroeder started his career producing such films as The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962), Six in Paris (1965), and Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974). He then transitioned into directing films such as More (1969), La Vallée (1972) and Barfly (1987), the last of which was nominated for the Palme d'Or. He also gained recognition for directing the documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978). He directed what he labeled, "The Trilogy of Evil", which includes the films, General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Terror's Advocate (2007) and The Venerable W. (2016). He directed the drama Reversal of Fortune (1990) and earned a nomination for Academy Award for Best Director. He then directed many big budget Hollywood films, often mixing melodrama with the thriller genre in films like Single White Female (1992), Kiss of Death (1995), Desperate Measures (1998) and Murder by Numbers (2002). He also acted in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007).

5. Asghar Farhadi (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 52.94, Asghar Farhadi is the 5th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Asghar Farhadi (Persian: اصغر فرهادی, [æsˈɢæɾ ɛ fæɾhɑːˈdiː] ; born 7 May 1972) is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Iranian cinema as well as world cinema in the 21st century. His films have gained recognition for their focus on the human condition, and portrayals of intimate and challenging stories of internal family conflicts. In 2012, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. That same year, he also received the Legion of Honour from France. Farhadi made his directorial film debut with the drama Dancing in the Dust (2003), followed by The Beautiful City (2004) and Fireworks Wednesday (2006). He gained acclaim for his film About Elly (2009) earning a Silver Bear for Best Director. He became one of the few directors worldwide to have won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film twice, for the family drama A Separation (2011) and the moral drama The Salesman (2016), the latter of which also received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay. He also gained acclaim for his films The Past (2013), which was filmed in France, and Everybody Knows (2018), which was filmed in Spain. Farhadi returned to Iran with A Hero (2021), which earned him the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix.

6. Shirin Neshat (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 52.72, Shirin Neshat is the 6th most famous Iranian Film Director. Her biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Shirin Neshat (Persian: شیرین نشاط; born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, and bridging the spaces between these subjects. Since the Islamic Revolution, she has said that she has "gravitated toward making art that is concerned with tyranny, dictatorship, oppression and political injustice. Although I don’t consider myself an activist, I believe my art – regardless of its nature – is an expression of protest, a cry for humanity.” Neshat has been recognized for winning the International Award of the XLVIII Venice Biennale in 1999, and the Silver Lion as the best director at the 66th Venice Film Festival in 2009, to being named Artist of the Decade by Huffington Post critic G. Roger Denson. Neshat is a critic in the photography department at the Yale School of Art.

7. Majid Majidi (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 51.91, Majid Majidi is the 7th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Majid Majidi (Persian: مجید مجیدی, romanized: Majīd Majīdī) is an Iranian filmmaker and producer. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous international awards.

8. Mohsen Makhmalbaf (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 51.28, Mohsen Makhmalbaf is the 8th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Persian: محسن مخملباف, Mohsen Makhmalbaaf; born May 29, 1957) is an Iranian film director, writer, film editor, and producer. He has made over 20 feature films, won 50 awards, and been a juror in more than 15 major film festivals. His award-winning films include Kandahar; his latest documentary is The Gardener and latest feature The President. Makhmalbaf's films have been widely presented at international film festivals in the past ten years. The director belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film Kandahar as one of the top 100 films of all time. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival. Makhmalbaf left Iran in 2005 shortly after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and has lived in Paris since the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election.

9. Masoud Kimiai (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 50.62, Masoud Kimiai is the 9th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Masoud Kimiai (or Masoud Kimiaei, Persian: مسعود کیمیایی, born 29 July 1941) is an Iranian director, screenwriter and producer.

10. Ali Hatami (1944 - 1996)

With an HPI of 47.23, Ali Hatami is the 10th most famous Iranian Film Director. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Ali Hatami (Persian: علی حاتمی, August 14, 1944 – December 7, 1996) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, art director, and costume designer. The Tehran Times dubbed him "the Hafez of Iranian cinema due to the poetic ambiance of his movies."

People

Pantheon has 17 people classified as Iranian film directors born between 1939 and 1984. Of these 17, 13 (76.47%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Iranian film directors include Jafar Panahi, Barbet Schroeder, and Asghar Farhadi. The most famous deceased Iranian film directors include Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui, and Ali Hatami. As of April 2024, 4 new Iranian film directors have been added to Pantheon including Ali Hatami, Rakhshān Banietemad, and Mohammad Rasoulof.